i love vivian and charles’s story – vivian is originally from missouri, and charles from new york; they met in boston a few years ago. vivian made her way out to the bay area to start medical school at stanford last year, and charles soon followed to start his residency. the rest is history – they are getting married at the end of october!

not only are vivian and charles super smart, they were completely fun, fabulous, and spontaneous. my ideal couple 🙂 i had been wanting to check out a few new locations and SOMA was one of them – and these two were completely willing to play along with me. they didn’t bat an eyelash when i made them lie down in a parking lot (with plenty of spectators walking down the street), or push each other around in shopping carts in the costco parking lot.

SOMA is a pretty awesome location – lots of colorful walls and industrial textures. looooooooove. i was walking in the area one day and thought it would make an awesome backdrop for photos and wanted to come back for a shoot one day – this was my chance. 🙂 i hope vivian and charles didn’t think i was crazy when i came across a random spot and started swooning. 🙂 or when i started saying “awwwwwww” every time they did osmething cute (which was basically, the entire shoot). hahahah! they were good spots, totally freaking adorable, and i had soooo much fun walking around the neighborhood with them and just hanging out with them.

lots of favorites to show 🙂

i pointed out that these two were awesome at dipping. charles’s response to that comment? “it’s because she’s so tiny.” hehe.

i LOVE the way vivian is looking at charles in this next photo. so sweet!

oh, yes. i made them pose under the freeway, near the 101 entrance. with lots and lots of cars passing by. i’m evil 🙂

i have a thing for fences lately. and not of the white picket variety….i just think they have awesome texture. and i think i blame trude‘s boy a little bit for that influence (earl, if you’re reading this, then yes, i give you the win for that one too)

again, i loooooove the way they’re looking at each other in this next photo:

i adore this jumping shot:

i love this orange wall. and aren’t they sooooooooooooooo cute?!?!?!?

i love laughter:

this alley had crazy lighting, but i kinda dig it 🙂 (this is also around the time the fog rolled in)

vivian looks something fabulous here!

the story behind these photos – i told these two to look emo. charles said he didn’t know what emo was. i asked him, “didn’t you go through an emo phase in high school?” to which he replied, “no. i went from fob to nerd.” then he busted out these:
HAHAHAHAHAH. i love these guys.

costco parking lot! hehe.

random costco story: i had told these two to meet me at costco, and i had arrived a little bit early. i kinda LOVE costco hot dogs (helloooooo! a hot dog + a drink for $1.50! can’t go wrong with that!) and i was hoping to grab one while waiting for them. unfortunately, the food court was inside and i don’t have a costco card. i just sat outside waiting for them, and the guy checking cards at the entrance kept looking at me suspiciously, since well, who sits outside a costco for 20 minutes? during that time, i was also looking around and scoping the scene, and thought that the light where the row of shopping carts were would totally make awesome photos. anyhow, after a while, the card checker turned the other way and started talking to the receipt checker at the entrance, so i ran into the costco and got my hot dog. it was delicious. but that meant no shooting in front of the row of shopping carts when vivian and charles arrived. oh well. we got the “push vivian around in a shopping cart” shots at the end 🙂

vivian and charles, i had soooo much fun spending the afternoon with you!! you guys are fabulous! good luck with med school and residency – i know you guys will rock it!

after a month or two of consistently foggy/cold shoots, the sun finally came out for this one! mother nature must have been smiling upon allysa and ronnie, and i knew i was going to be in for a super good time. i mean, the sun was shining upon us, right? what could be better?

turns out i was right. and it did get better – allysa and ronnie are super adorable and totally fabulous. not to mention, allysa is gorgeous and ronnie is a total stud. they are also completely in love, and i kinda melted when i saw the way they looked at each other. these two also knew how to work it, and the camera just looooooved them (seriously. they look like models in some of these shots!). add in some fun lighting (sun = i finally got to play with some sun flares! woo!) and you have some magic. i also loved the fact that allysa and ronnie were wanting to be different than everyone else, and wanting to move away from the norm – no cheesy or typical engagement photos here, thankyouverymuch. they also wanted an urban setting for their session – and we ended up at south beach/misson bay and treasure island, which allysa actually suggested. i always end up suggesting treasure island to people but no one bites, so i was THRILLED when she asked if we could shoot there! seriously, i could not asked for more during this session (now that i’ve said that, i’m sure i’m going to get another long streak of foggy sessions again, aren’t i? pffft)!

allysa and ronnie originally wanted to get married in new york. in fact, they were considering getting married at shake shack, which you might have heard me raving about after my day in NYC. seriously, they have super delicious burgers and cones. yummmm. i think that would’ve made an awesome wedding – i might have had to weasel an invite out of them for that one 😉 they decided to get married in the bay area though, so that more of their family and friends could join them.

anyways. i had waaaaaaaaay too much trouble narrowing down my favorites from this one, so be prepared for a LONG post!

i lurrrrrrrrve this one:

they look like they belong in a fashion spread here:

helloooooo, pretty light. i’ve missed you!

i was waaaaaay too excited about the sun. i think i said “OMG, I CAN’T BELIEVE THE SUN IS OUT!” way too many times.

by the time we left for treasure island, the fog was rolling in – FAST. allysa had originally wanted some photos on the island with the skyline in the background, but you couldn’t see it anymore! so we went on to the other parts of the island…

i think i almost fell through the floor while shooting these photos. literally. i’m actually surprised i didn’t, lol.

rawr.

i looooove this purple (blue?) fire truck (trude pointed it out to me when we did our swap there)!

rachel and ronnie were the winners of my summer engagement giveaway last month, and i was so happy that i found myself such a fun, adorable couple. rachel wanted a very SF-esque engagement session without all the cliches (i.e. the palace of fine arts and the golden gate bridge), and we came up with the russian hill/ghirardelli square area. we didn’t actually make it into the heart of russian square as it involved climbing, you know, hills – we made it up to the top of lombard st. and were pretty much winded – and ended up in part of the fisherman’s wharf area. on a sunday afternoon. which meant it was swarmed with lots and lots of tourists mulling about and staring at them getting all kissy for the camera. i’m sure it made them super awkward, but they sure didn’t show it.

these two are, like, totally adorable and a complete blast. they went along with my crazy ideas, like making the 4-block VERY hilly and UPHILL trek up to lombard and then getting mushy there while a bunch of cars drove by. heh. but did i mention, they are completely adorable?! these two are giants fans, which means this dodger fan is not supposed to like them, but i had to let even that slide because of their adorableness. the best part about this session? watching them make each other laugh. it was so friggin cute. awwwwww.

oh, and here’s where i would normally whine about the weather yet again…it was super foggy and kinda drizzly…but the sun kind of peeked through for about 10 seconds. i guess a session trying to depict san francisco HAS to include some fog. haha. surprisingly, it wasn’t super cold. i guess i’ll take what i can get.

anyhow. we all know i have trouble narrowing down my favorites, but that was even more so true with this session. enjoy!

san francisco = cable cars 🙂

they let rachel “pull” the lever 🙂

this next photo basically sums up the day:

so ronnie spotted the bridge and wanted a photo with it. i had to go the untraditional route here.

rachel has such gorgeous eyes, and the next two photos show it. no photoshopping, all natural!! 🙂

ring shot! 🙂

i bought these heart ring pops at target around valentine’s day, thinking they’d be a fun prop for an engagement shoot. i’d forgotten about them for awhile, but remembered them and brought them along with me. i almost forgot i had them but remembered i had them towards the end of our session, and brought them out for the last few shots….

i think they had fun with them 🙂 heeeee.

thanks rachel and ronnie!! you guys were a blast! good luck planning your wedding!

i came across this session while looking through my files tonight and realized that for some reason or another, i’d never blogged this session! DUHHH. i have no idea why i never did, because it’s one of the most fun sessions in recent memory! jade first contacted me on facebook and told me to look around her profile to get a sense of who she and jonathan were as a couple, and then suggest a location for their engagement shoot. i immediately knew i was going to be in for a blast – you totally got the sense that these two loved to have fun!

jade and jonathan have that perfect mix of silliness, sweetness, and fun. they would totally be cracking me up by making dorky faces at each other, and then would totally switch gears and make me melt by getting mushy with each other. awwww. we met up at fort mason – these two were in the military so the idea of doing their engagement photos at a fort appealed to them.

these two got married on 7/11, and jade wanted to go take some photos in front of a 7-11, but then we were having too much fun and ran out of time. boo hiss. oh well.

so. many. favorites. i had SUCH a fun afternoon with them, and i enjoyed looking at these photos again!

“footlooooooooose…..!”

that photo on the right=LOL:

LOL at jonathan in the photo on the right – HAHA!

another footloose moment!

loooove this one….

these two have an old VW bus that they drove allllll the way from montana. they wanted to include it in their shoot, and i was happy that they did because it is pretty AWESOME.

they also love sailing (they were in the navy) and say that they would be living on a boat if not for the fact that they have dogs, so shooting at the marina was a good choice 🙂

ring shot:

we went over to the park overlooking the fort where the light was lovelyyyyyy!

laura and ismael (also affectionately known as lo & jr.) is one of THOSE couples. you know the super sweet one that make your stomach hurt? that’s not a bad thing 🙂 they were totally fun and fabulous and SUPER sweet and affectionate – so adorable. these two are getting married in october, are big reggae fans, and are a’s and niners diehards – in fact, part of their honeymoon is planned around the fact that the niners will be in england for an exhibition game.

i had a blast hanging out with them…we met up at the deyoung and made ourselves around golden gate park, shooting in random areas that we thought would make for cool photos. there were lots of them, and they were willing to go along with anything i suggested, even if it meant that they had to climb through random trees and brush. it was kind of like an adventure, we said.

it was worth it, because there are many awesome photos that came from their shoot…

i never tire of a good jumping photo 🙂

thanks, guys for some fun times! 🙂 have fun at the wedding and on the honeymoon!

a sweet couple + adorable dog + a lovely san francisco sunset = the formula for an awesome engagement session. i met up with sandy and leighton one sunday afternoon for their e-session, and the weather and light were perfect. it was just before sunset, and it was glowy and lovely!

sandy and leighton were so sweet, and completely into each other. they completely adore each other, and it was fun watching them be all cute to each other. they also brought along their dog, pepe, who is not only the cutest dog ever, but full of energy! it was challenging trying to keep up with him, but it was fun having him around!

these two are getting married in hawaii in the fall – i am jealous! they wanted a san francisco backdrop for their engagement pictures though, so we headed out to the palace of fine arts and crissy field, and got some shots with the bridge in the background.

my favorites:

after the palace, we walked over to crissy field for some shots in the grass, beach, and with the bridge in the background.

looooove their expressions here 🙂

beachy shots 🙂 the sun was starting to approach the horizon, so we got some great, glowy light.

playing with the sunset. it was gorgeous! the only problem was that by this point, it was both super windy AND cold. brrr.

this one is probably my favorite from the entire session:

and as a bonus, here are some adorable shots of pepe. i loooooove dogs 🙂

i love his “pleeeeeeease” pose. lol!

thanks, sandy, leighton and pepe for a great time! i had fun with you guys 🙂

deep and poorvi are friends of both priti & ketal and shruti & kevin, who were two of my favorite couples that i’ve had the pleasure of shooting, so i knew i would be in for a good time. they definitely didn’t let me down! they were totally sweet and loving, completely into each other, and kept making me go “awww.” i loved the way they looked at each other, talked to each other, and kept making each other laugh. i love their expressions in each of their photos – you can tell how much in love they are!

we started over at the palace of fine arts, where we’d planned to do the majority of the shooting, however, the inside of the palace is closed for renovations. boo. we improvised though, and shot around the palace, and walked over to crissy field, taking advantage of the grass, trees, and beach. i had so much fun with these two and i have a ton of favorites to share with y’all…

i LOVE the way they’re looking at each other in this photo:

i love the outfits they chose, especially in the grassy/trees shots over at crissy field. the orange TOTALLY pops against the green and looks awesome on camera. LOVE!!!

so we were shooting in these trees for a while…and all of a sudden i turn around and the sun had disappeared and it was starting to get kind of breezy and chilly. what the? gotta love fickle san francisco weather, sheesh.